"We should get our comrades to understand that the twofold basic task of the leading bodies of the Communist Party is to know conditions and to master policy; the former means knowing the world and the latter changing the world." -Mao Zedong, 1941, Reform our Study

June 8-9 World Economic Forum and the juggling of inter-imperialist rivalries: Statement from Anti-Imperialist, ML, and MLM orgs in Eastern and Central Europe

RI Editorial Note: On the occasion of the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Austria, a number of eastern and central European anti-imperialist and revolutionary organizations have released this joint statement, analyzing the present world economic crisis, budding inter-imperialist rivalries, and the role of the World Economic Forum in containing them.

The analysis within the statement touches on the role that such international forums play in containing the struggles amongst rival imperialist bourgeoisies. As they write:

“In trying to weaken the further aggravation of these conflicts among the imperialist states at least for some time and to get more space for their own maneuvers the representatives of the capital are led to certain international coordination. It’s transitory because the conflicts among them aggravate sooner or later to a point that for them international coordination becomes more a hindrance than a means of tactical advantage.”

Attack WEF summit in Vienna, Austria, June 2011!

Smash imperialism and all its institutions!

From 8 to 9 June the summit of World Economic Forum (WEF) will take place in Vienna, Austria. Then more than 1000 representatives of various governments and companies with meet to coordinate on “economic, political and academic issues” and draw common plans on that. At least when reading the self-definition of WEF about “membership” one sees clearly who is meeting whom at this summit and which forces are convening for this summit: “A typical member company is a global enterprise with a turn-over of more than 5 billion US dollars.” The WEF summit is more than a mere conference for discussion, it is an important board of coordination of the biggest monopoly enterprises (banks and trusts) in the world sharing their plans for further and further maximizing their profits. The governments of the imperialist as well as the puppet governments installed by them in the dependent countries take part in the meeting to secure the translation of their plans into action. The contents of their coordinated plans are their attacks against the masses of the peoples and the working class. It’s about the interest of those who produce austerity programs, wage-cuts, longer working hours, abolishing political rights und much more against the workers for creating better conditions for the capitalists. It’s about the interest of those who have de-industrialized the Balkans and have destroyed social rights there, who have transformed Greece into a mere colony of EU- and US-Imperialism. It’s about the interest of those who have destroyed environment by ruinously exhausting the soil or by “profitably running” nuclear power plants (such as in Japan). It’s about the interests of those who suppress the peoples around the globe and instigate imperialist wars to enable them shape the conditions according to their profit interest.

It’s not the WEF alone but a long line of various international organizations and cooperations (e.g. International Monetary Funds – IMF, World Bank, General Agreement on Trades in Services – GATS etc.) that are very important for the interest of the capital of the imperialist countries and unions (US, EU, Russia,…). The WEF is however not the most important international meeting but it must nevertheless not be underestimated. As the spheres of exploitation and influence have already been distributed on a global scale the imperialist robbers unavoidably come into conflict with each other during their chase for profits. These contradiction emerging from the struggle for further maximum profits lead to conflicts increasing up to wars among the contending states for world domination. In trying to weaken the further aggravation of these conflicts among the imperialist states at least for some time and to get more space for their own maneuvers the representatives of the capital are led to certain international coordination. It’s transitory because the conflicts among them aggravate sooner or later to a point that for them international coordination becomes more a hindrance than a means of tactical advantage. As the WEF as well as other international institution of capital are based on such fundaments it cannot be fought against without struggle against imperialism at the same time. For communists in imperialist countries the main enemy is always in their ”own” country and their “own” imperialist bourgeoisie and it is their “own” state that must be fought against primarily. For those in dependent countries the struggle against suppression by the imperialist powers and the respective puppets in the governments installed by them is the most important task. On the one and the other way the point is that the revolutionary forces can only win if the working class movement in the imperialist countries closely links and unites with the movement of the workers and the peoples of the dependent countries. This unity expresses politically in proletarian internationalism, the firm revolutionary unity of the working class and peoples that is built up against the imperialist world order with the certain elements at present working together on a tactical level or not.

At present the imperialist governments succeed in calming down the working class of the imperialist countries to a large extent by means of extra profits squeezed out from the neo-colonies but especially the revolts in the suburbs (France 2006), the revolutionary movement in Bask Country, the militant workers movements in France, Italy and elsewhere we see rudiments of a militant, radical resistance against capitalism. The workers and peoples movement in the dependent countries however go further. The Greek proletariat that is still resisting the deterioration dictated by imperialism, the workers of Eastern Europe that are resisting the destruction of their social and political rights, the revolutionary peoples wars in India, Peru, Philippines, Turkey …, the democratic peoples rebellions in the Arabic countries, … – all these give vivid evidence that the plans of the imperialists, such as those coordinated at the WEF summit and elsewhere are answered by the peoples, are confronted by revolutionary resistance.

The topic of the WEF summit in Vienna is “Eastern Europe and Central Asia”. It’s not by chance that this summit takes place in Vienna when bearing in mind the role of Austrian imperialism especially in Eastern Europe and at the Balkans where it has heavy economic and political influence. Since the years after the fall of Russian social-imperialism in 1991hte WEF has regularly met in Vienna for coordinating the imperialist exploitation of the Balkans. This focal point of the WEF summit is moreover important for the imperialist EU project of today as they are according their political, military and economic intervention in this region with the biggest global monopoly companies i.e. nothing else than discussing among imperialists about the issue of gaining more profits from Eastern Europe or the Balkans, how to squeeze the people even more under the boots of imperialism. It’s a similar situation in Central Asia where the battle for zones of influence and markets aggravates among the imperialists of Russia, the EU, US and China and the capital interests of the Group of Shanghai 5. There however the imperialists are confronted with broad people’s movements and peoples wars led by Maoists whereas the people’s resistance at the Balkans is still weak.

We know well that radical upheavals leading to proletarian revolutions develop within the framework of nations, that contradictions develop unevenly and that therefore revolutionary forces are confronted with their respective next steps to solve their problems, but for getting further we nevertheless must advance and strengthen the cooperation of revolutionary communist forces in our struggles. Referring to the certain occasion we state that the WEF is an expression of objective imperialist needs and accordingly their interests. Therefore we call for getting active against them and participating in the actions against the WEF summit in June 2011 in Vienna. We want to develop the resistance on an internationalist and revolutionary level meaning that even a liquidation of the WEF would not change much – as capitalism has no errors but it is the error! Neither the international organizations and forums of the capital nor the imperialist global system can be reformed or shaped according with the interest of the masses. The aim is not a “fairer” distribution of the given goods but to bring production and political power into the hands of the working class and the peoples masses, and the first step for this must be smashing the bourgeois state apparatus. Against imperialism and all its institutions we link up with the resistance of the working class and peoples masses against the living conditions produced by imperialism and build up the struggle against the capitalist-imperialist system as a whole, the struggle for proletarian revolution, for communism.

Down with imperialism and all its institutions!

Forward with the anti-imperialist and people’s democratic revolutions!

Forward with the proletarian revolution!

Red Action (Croatia)Party of Labour (Serbia)Communist Party of Greece (marxist-leninist)maoist Communist Party (Italy)Red Block (Youth League of the maoist Comunist Party of Italy)Workers and Peastants Party BulgariaMaoist Communist Party – Turkey/Northern KurdistanPartizan (Turkey)New-Democratic YouthServe the People – Communist League of NorwayInitiative for the Construction of a Revolutionary-Communist Party (Austria)Revolutionary-Communist Youth League (Austria)